Essex Street Market’s Future Looking a Little Uncertain

Community Board 3 held a meeting last night to discuss the fate of the Essex Street Market. Bowery Boogie reports that the Economic Development Corporation, which owns the land, presented four possible scenarios for the market’s future. As we mentioned back in March, the most developed idea seems to be moving the market across the street: The EDC brought out renderings of what a two-story facility at the southeast corner of Delancey and Essex Streets might look like, and outlined benefits including room for more vendors, improved garbage handling, and “better public space connection.”

The other scenarios were to preserve the facade and remodel the market’s interior, divide things between two buildings, or leave the space as is. Vendor Anne Saxelby is still pushing hard for preserving the historic space, and that Save the Essex Street Market petition now has over 2,000 signatures, but when longtime tenants such as Jeffrey’s Meat Market are compelled to shutter, we have to wonder whether the status quo is working.